Doctoral Dissertation Research: Negotiating Strategies: Immigrant Non-Profit Organizations as Social Movement Actors

本研究旨在确定在纽约市代表南亚移民工人的非营利组织(NPO)如何在使用社会运动活动(如直接行动策略或宣传努力)与提供社区公共卫生服务之间取得平衡。这项研究旨在帮助我们更好地了解这些南亚非营利组织如何协调服务提供、直接行动和宣传之间的紧张关系，以及在其战略决策中发挥作用的因素。关于社会运动组织的文献表明，当国家、资助机构或组织的成员采取合法的新行动形式时，组织采取不同的战略。研究还表明，各组织可能试图将各种行动形式结合起来，以便同时从事服务提供和社会运动活动。最后，研究表明，一个组织的身份认同和意识形态承诺在谈判策略中起着作用。在这项研究中，移民工人的非营利组织将根据该组织采用的主要战略(提供服务或直接行动)进行选择。通过完成两个为南亚移民工人服务的非营利组织的案例研究，该研究希望提供理论见解，以了解问责、意识形态和身份承诺方面的压力如何影响非营利组织在服务提供、直接行动和倡导战略之间的谈判方式。

SES-0503235Constance A. NathansonNadia IslamColumbia UniversityThe study seeks to determine how non-profit organizations (NPOs) representing South Asian immigrant workers in New York City balance the use of social movement activities (such as direct action tactics or advocacy efforts) with that of providing community public health services. The study aims to help us better understand how such South Asian NPOs reconcile the tension between service delivery, direct action, and advocacy, and the factors that play a role in their strategic decision making. Literature on social movement organizations indicates that organizations engage in different strategies when the state, funding institutions, or the organization's constituents legitimate new forms of action. Studies also show that organizations may attempt to combine forms of action in order to simultaneously engage in service delivery and social movement activities. Finally, studies indicate that an organization's identity and ideological commitments play a role in negotiating strategies. In this study immigrant workers' NPOs will be selected based on the primary strategy utilized by the organization (service delivery or direct action). Through completing case studies of two NPOs that serve South Asian immigrant workers, the study hopes to provide theoretical insights into how pressures toward accountability, ideological and identity commitments influence the way that NPOs negotiate between strategies of service delivery, direct action, and advocacy.